HBO Teases the Return of Two Highly Anticipated Shows

If all goes according to plan, two high-profile dramas about lawmen will be returning to HBO soon. The network’s President of Programming, Casey Bloys, faced a room full of TV writers at the Summer Television Critics Association Press Tour Wednesday who pumped him for any possible clues on the future of True Detective and Deadwood.

As previously announced, Bloys confirmed that the third season of the embattled series True Detective will, if it happens, star Oscar winner Mahershala Ali.Reportedly, Deadwood creator David Milch lent creator Nic Pizzolatto a hand on “five scripts” that Bloys is enormously pleased by. But Bloys cautions that the network is still hammering out the details on budget and is looking for “a new director.” Though Bloys didn’t explicitly follow up on that statement, it sounds as though the next season would be a return to the first (critically lauded) season, where a single director, Cary Fukunaga, helmed every episode. One criticism lobbed at the second season was a lack of singular vision which, potentially, Bloys hopes to remedy.

But a potential assistance on True Detective isn’t Milch’s only current HBO project. Bloys confirmed that he had received a Milch script for a much-discussed, long-awaited wrap-up to the cult favorite western Deadwood. “I wanted a script that would stand on its own,” Bloys said of what we might expect from any journey back to the dusty streets of the 19th century South Dakota mining town. He said Milch delivered a story that could be enjoyed by both Deadwood obsessives and newcomers alike. But the project, he added, is far from a done deal.

When promoting Fear the Walking Dead at San Diego Comic-Con last weekend, original Deadwood stars Kim Dickens (Joanie Stubbs) and Dayton Callie (Charlie Utter) confirmed to TVLine that HBO had started to reach out to determine their availability. Other original stars soon shared their excitement via social media about the opportunity to give the cancelled-too-soon series a satisfying ending, even over ten years later.

But as Bloys noted Wednesday, it will be challenging to re-unite the sprawling Deadwood cast, many of whom have gone on to star in projects of their own. “If we can get the cast together,” Bloys promised, “we’re inclined to do it.”

So that’s a cautious green light for the lawmen. But what about the criminals? Bloys had some disappointing news for fans of The Night Of hoping for a quick follow-up to the 2016 drama starring John Turturro and Riz Ahmed. He told the TCA crowd that he wouldn’t go forward with anything on The Night Of until creator Steve Zaillian was “ready with an idea.” Perhaps he had learned from his predecessor’s mistakes; when speaking about the beleaguered second season of True Detective in 2016, former HBO President of Programming Michael Lombardo lamented acting like “too much of a network executive” by attempting to repeat past successes without giving the redos enough thought.

In the end, Bloys couldn’t escape a round of questions about what’s on deck for HBO without tackling the eighth and final season of Game of Thrones. He wouldn’t commit too much, other than to say all the scripts are done, and that showrunners D.B. Weiss and David Benioff are “boarding” out the final six episodes to determine how long it will take them to shoot. “It’s a big big season,” he promised—without confirming how long we’ll have to wait to see the pending battle between ice zombies and dragons play out.